{"id":37008,"date":"2019-05-24T16:56:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T22:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=37008"},"modified":"2019-05-26T08:43:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T14:43:46","slug":"walk-with-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/walk-with-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Walk With the Church","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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THERE<\/strong> is a bit of a sinking feeling in my gut. I’ve been processing it all week before writing today. After reading public comments from even well-known Catholics, to “conservative” media to the average layperson… it’s clear that the chickens have come home to roost. The lack of catechesis, moral formation, critical thinking and basic virtues in Western Catholic culture is rearing its dysfunctional head. In the words of Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia:<\/p>\n

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\u2026there\u2019s no easy way to say it. The Church in the United States has done a poor job of forming the faith and conscience of Catholics for more than 40 years. And now we\u2019re harvesting the results\u2014in the public square, in our families and in the confusion of our personal lives.<\/strong> \u2014Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Political Vocation<\/em>, February 23rd, 2009, Toronto, Canada<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, many Christians are no longer even aware of the basic teachings of the Faith…\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014Cardinal Gerhard M\u00fcller, February 8th, 2019, Catholic News Agency<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The “results” resemble a trainwreck\u2014as, for example, “Catholic” politicians who frequently lead the charge to mandate abortion, assisted-suicide and gender ideology; or clergy grappling with sexual abuse coverups while remaining conspicuously silent \"\"on moral teaching; or the laity, nearly shepherdless for decades now, either embracing moral relativism as their informal creed, or on the other extreme, publically damning anyone who does not subscribe to their view of what spirituality, the liturgy or the pope should be like.<\/p>\n

It’s a mess. Go onto any Catholic news website, blog, forum or Facebook page and read the comments. They are embarrassing. If I was not a Catholic, what I read on a regular basis on the internet would probably ensure that I never would be. The verbal assaults against Pope Francis are almost unprecedented (though on par with Martin Luther’s sometimes rancid remarks). The public condemning and damning of fellow Catholics who do not follow a certain liturgical style, or who embrace a certain private revelation, or who simply disagree with one another on other matters constitutes in itself a\u00a0scandal.\u00a0<\/em>Why?<\/p>\n

Because the unity of the Church is<\/strong>\u00a0her witness<\/em>!\u00a0<\/p>\n

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By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is why my heart is sinking today. While the world closes in on the Catholic Church (in the East, literally beheading Christians and driving them underground, while in the West, legislating the Church out of existence) Catholics themselves are tearing one another apart!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting with the Pope…<\/p>\n

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CATHOLIC ANARCHY<\/p>\n

I remember the very day that this pontificate began to be publicly rejected by many “conservative” Catholics for the direction he chose to take the Barque of Peter in:<\/p>\n

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The Church\u2019s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.\u00a0Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise, even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.<\/strong> \u2014POPE FRANCIS, September 30th, 2013; americamagazine.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"He elaborated further in his first Apostolic Exhortation,\u00a0Evangelii Gaudium<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>that at this time in the world when mankind has become so intoxicated by sin, the Church must return to the kerygma, <\/em>the “first announcement”:\u00a0<\/p>\n

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On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: \u201cJesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.\u201d<\/strong> \u2014Evangelii Gaudium<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>n. 164<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As someone who has evangelized in the Catholic Church for over thirty years, I totally got it, as have many others I know in ministry. The heart of our faith is not our stance against abortion, euthanasia, gender experimentation, etc.. It’s the love and mercy of\u00a0Jesus Christ,<\/em>\u00a0His quest for the\u00a0lost and brokenhearted and the salvation He offers them.<\/p>\n

But what a firestorm the Pope’s initial statement created! And the Pope, perceiving too legalistic a mindset in the Church, has chosen not to bend, not to answer most questions asking him to clarify some of his confusing statements or actions since then. I’m not saying the Pope’s silence is necessarily right. Confirming the brethren in the faith is not only his duty, but I think would only\u00a0strengthen<\/em> his evangelistic exhortation. But it’s up to him how he feels best to do that. So perhaps others should\u00a0<\/em>be much more silent<\/a>,\u00a0especially when publically charging the Holy Father with “heresy” while seemingly not understanding what canonically constitutes a heresy or a heretic. [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. Jimmy Akins’ response<\/a><\/span><\/span>